SUBITA MAO DE ALGUM FANTASMA OCULTA

Unexplained hand of some hidden ghost
Between the folds of night and my sleep
Shaking and waking me and in the abandonment
Of night I perceive neither gesture nor form
But an Ancient terror, unburied
Carried in my heart, descends
As from a throne, and affirms itself as my Lord and Master
Orderless, motionless and awe-imposing.

And I feel my life suddenly
Linked to a chain of the unconscious
By some nocturnal hand that guides me.

I feel I am no one but a shadow only
Of a shape I don't see, startling me
And in nothingness I exist like cold obscurity.

by Fernando Pessoa
translated by JL Agneto
1968

E-mail: Rufina Bernardetti Silva Mausenbaum